A Quick And Easy Christmas Craft

Updated on December 3, 2013

Santa Pants, Quick and Easy Christmas Ornament | Source

Christmas Traditions At Our House

Christmas isn't always about the gifts. At our house, Christmas is about traditions and memories. One tradition that we do every year is make ornaments for our tree. No matter how old the children get they always look forward to the traditions that create Christmas. We have quite a few and adding new ornaments is one of our favorite.

It's amazing how much we forget over a year. When we open the box that holds our Christmas tree ornaments and start remembering the memories it always warms all of our hearts. The kids like to talk about the ornaments made at school and remember what grade they were in and who their teacher was that year. They love to recollect over the ornaments that we made together as a family and we always love adding the current year's ornament to our tree.

We love to talk about what we did last year or years prior and the fun we had at Christmas. Christmas for our family is all about tradition and memories made. We don't put a lot of emphasis on presents and high tech gadgets. We like to enjoy the time together that we share and the excitement of the season.

My children are getting older and although they have busy lives and a lot of things going on each day, they still make time to sit down and make Christmas ornaments and gingerbread houses and we listen to Christmas music every day of the season. We can't help but love our family traditions and all look forward to the Christmas season every year.

Recycle, Don't Throw Away!

There is one thing I love to do and that is recycle. I love to find uses for things that would normally be tossed into the garbage. If I can think of a way to re-use something I will save it and put it to good use.

Recycling toilet tissue rolls is easy to do and there are a lot of uses for them. We created this Christmas ornament using them and we couldn't be happier about how they turned out.

This is a great craft for families with children of any age, as well as a craft for school children. Teachers could use this idea for a classroom project for students.

I hope you find as much pleasure in making these Santa Pants ornaments as we did!

What You Need To Make This Christmas Ornament

Let's get started on this adorable craft. You will need just a few items to make a Santa Pants ornament.

Red craft paint

Black craft paint

Gold craft paint

A broad craft paint brush

A fine tip craft paint brush

Toilet tissue roll

Poster board or cardboard

Hot glue gun

Glue sticks

Clear fishing line or string

Scissors

Recycle Toilet Tissue Rolls To Make A Cute Christmas Ornament

Don't toss out those toilet tissue rolls. They can be recycled into a lot of things, including a cute Christmas ornament. These little Santa pants can be filled with chocolate kisses or red and white peppermints and given as simple gifts to friends and family. They can be used to create a cute advent calendar with a small treat in each one to count down the days until Santa visits. The uses are endless with these small creations. Grab a few toilet tissue rolls and get ready to craft!

Supplies To Make This Christmas Ornament

What you need to create a Santa Pants ornament | Source

Click thumbnail to view full-size

Cut the toilet tissue roll in half | Source

Cut a small square from poster board or cardboard | Source

Poke holes on the sides of the roll | Source

Run a line of hot glue around the edge | Source

Glue the square to the bottom | Source

Trim the square to fit the bottom | Source

Paint the roll red | Source

The roll painted red | Source

Run a line of hot glue around the roll and then repeat. | Source

Attach fishing line or string for the hanger. | Source

Let's Get Started

Place newspaper or craft paper down to keep from getting paint on the table. Cut the toilet tissue roll in half. Each roll will create two ornaments. Poke a hole in each side of the roll. Attach a piece of clear fishing line or string to create the hanger. Doing this first allows you to hold the roll on your fingers as you paint.

Cut a small piece of poster board or cardboard into a square. Run a bead of hot glue around the edge of the roll and attach the square. Trim the square around the roll.

Paint the entire roll red and let dry. If you want another coat, paint the second coat and let dry.

Using the hot glue gun, use steady pressure to run a line of hot glue around the roll. Repeat a bit lower to create the belt. Make a square using the hot glue gun to create the buckle.

(Note: If you would rather skip the step of making the belt out of hot glue and black paint, a strip of black electrical tape would do just was well and make the buckle out of hot glue only.)

Click thumbnail to view full-size

Paint the inside of the roll red. | Source

The inside painted red. | Source

Paint the belt black. | Source

The belt painted black. | Source

Paint the buckle gold. | Source

Hang on the tree or fill with treats to give away as gifts. | Source

Finishing the Ornament

Once you have added the hot glue belt and buckle to the roll, paint the belt black with the fine tip craft paint brush and then the buckle gold. If you need to touch up with red go back and do that after the black and gold are dry.

Paint the inside of the roll red. Paint the inside bottom red. It's up to you if you want to paint the bottom of the roll red or leave it the color of card board or poster board.

Let the paint dry and fill with goodies to give out as gifts or hang on your tree.

Christmas Traditions

Do you enjoy adding new Christmas ornament to your tree that you have made each year?

Many Different Ideas To Use Santa Pants Ornaments

There are so many ways to use these cute Santa Pants ornaments. If you like to give out a simple gift to a lot of people, these are the perfect solution. You can make as many as you need in a short amount of time. Setting up a little assembly line allows you to make them in bulk.

Fill them with candy and set them on coworkers desks or give out to your friends at church or school.

Add a little potting soil and some flower seeds and get them sprouted and they can be planted right into a pot later on to let the flowers grow. Since they are made of paper they will compost as the flower grows.

Roll a little dryer lint into red tissue paper and stuff inside the roll and give a basket of them to friends that have fireplaces. They would make ideal fire starters.

Make enough for an advent tree and place a small treat inside each one for a Santa count down for young children.

Hang them outside on a line with birdseed for the birds to eat.

Poke holes in the bottoms to slide over lights and make a cute garland.

The ideas are endless and there are so many ways to use a little ornament like this for Christmas gift giving. Anyone would be pleased to see that you took the time to make something personal and give them a home made gift. Remember, it's not the gift that matters, it is the thought that counts.

8 comments

I love this idea. Why anyone pays money for decorations is beyond me. We love making our own.

jrpierce 3 years ago from Ellijay, Ga Author

I thought it was a great idea too. I agree spending loads of money on decorations when there are so many ways to make our own is crazy. We love making them.

rebeccamealey 2 years ago from Northeastern Georgia, USA

This a cute homemade ornament idea....I'll bet there are other ornaments that could be made. And I recall using empty tissue rolls to make menorahs.

jrpierce 2 years ago from Ellijay, Ga Author

Oh I bet that would be pretty, the Menorahs! I just had another idea with the rolls I will try out soon and see how they turn out. I love to recycle instead of throw away!

CraftytotheCore 2 years ago

Such a creative idea! They look great on the tree! Next year I want to do an entirely handmade ornament tree. I think that's so much nicer than the store bought ones. We had a mishap this year. We bought a real tree, and I'm allergic. We got it out of the house, but I've been sick ever since. The fake tree is up, but the cats climbed it and knocked it over breaking a lot of our ornaments! LOL At least we have a story to tell.

jrpierce 2 years ago from Ellijay, Ga Author

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear about your tree and ornaments :( I hope you feel better soon, allergies are horrible! I like your idea about an entire tree of homemade ornaments, I could do that too. That would give me an excuse to add yet another tree *my mind is going wild right now* haha

kikalina 2 years ago from Europe

My kids would love to make those decorations. Thanks for sharing.

jrpierce 2 years ago from Ellijay, Ga Author

This is a great craft for kids! It was easy and fun and didn't take a lot of time.